CVE-2015-8872 [Medium] | Denial of Service in Ubuntu Linux

The set_fat function in fat.c in dosfstools before 4.0 might allow attackers to corrupt a FAT12 filesystem or cause a denial of service (invalid memory read and crash) by writing an odd number of clusters to the third to last entry on a FAT12 filesystem, which triggers an "off-by-two error."

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-06-15	0.09%	0.43%	+0.33%
2	2025-03-17	0.21%	0.09%	-0.12%
3	2023-03-07	—	0.21%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-06-15

0.09%

0.43%

+0.33%

2025-03-17

0.21%

0.09%

-0.12%

2023-03-07

—

0.21%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
6.2	3.0	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:L) They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by. Attack complexity (AC:L) Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup. Privileges required (PR:N) No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough. User interaction (UI:N) Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping. Scope (S:U) Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems. Confidentiality (C:N) Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way. Integrity (I:N) Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged. Availability (A:H) Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.	2.5	3.6	[email protected]
2.1	2.0	LOW	`AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P` Click to expand Access vector (AV:L) Requires local access to the target system. Access complexity (AC:L) Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable. Authentication (AU:N) No authentication is required. Confidentiality impact (C:N) No confidentiality impact. Integrity impact (I:N) No integrity impact. Availability impact (A:P) Partial availability impact.	3.9	2.9	[email protected]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

6.2

3.0

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand

Attack vector (AV:L): They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L): Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N): No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N): Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U): Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N): Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N): Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H): Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

2.5

3.6

[email protected]

2.1

2.0

LOW

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P Click to expand

Access vector (AV:L): Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:L): Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N): No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N): No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N): No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P): Partial availability impact.

3.9

2.9

[email protected]

OS Trackers for CVE-2015-8872

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	not yet assigned	CVE-2015-8872 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (dosfstools), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5.	https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2015-8872
`redhat`	medium	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2015-8872
`suse`	low	CVE-2015-8872 severity low: SUSE including 3 source package names (dosfstools-2.11-121.31.4.1, dosfstools-3.0.26-3.1, dosfstools-3.0.26-6.5), 35 product×package rows across 35 product lines (Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-BYOS, Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-Basic-On-Demand, … (35 product lines)): Fixed 35.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2015-8872/
`ubuntu`	low	CVE-2015-8872 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (dosfstools), 7 status rows across 7 suites (precise, trusty, upstream, wily, xenial, yakkety, zesty): released 5, not-affected 2.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2015-8872

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2015-8872

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
canonical	ubuntu_linux	12.04	cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04::::lts:::
canonical	ubuntu_linux	14.04	cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04::::lts:::
canonical	ubuntu_linux	15.10	cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:15.10:::::::*
canonical	ubuntu_linux	16.04	cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04::::lts:::
opensuse	leap	42.1	cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:42.1:::::::*
opensuse	opensuse	13.2	cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:opensuse:13.2:::::::*
dosfstools_project	dosfstools	<= 3.0.28	cpe:2.3:a:dosfstools_project:dosfstools::::::::

References for CVE-2015-8872

URL	Tags
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2016-06/msg00001.html
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2016-09/msg00014.html
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/90311
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2986-1
https://blog.fuzzing-project.org/44-dosfstools-fsck.vfat-Several-invalid-memory-accesses.html	Vendor Advisory
https://github.com/dosfstools/dosfstools/commit/07908124838afcc99c577d1d3e84cef2dbd39cb7
https://github.com/dosfstools/dosfstools/issues/12	Vendor Advisory
https://github.com/dosfstools/dosfstools/releases/tag/v4.0	Patch
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/05/msg00028.html

URL

CVE-2015-8872

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2015-8872

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2015-8872

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2015-8872

OS Trackers for CVE-2015-8872

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2015-8872

References for CVE-2015-8872